Chapter 3

Odette spent a restless night thinking of Louis Mérante. It was amazing how much more she knew about the everyday workings of the theater now that she was invisible as a servant. In the month she'd been working off her debt, she had learned that Lucien was battling cancer, and was looking for a successor. While he trusted August Vaucorbeil to take over as director of the theater, he didn't have the vision or skill to push the ballet to the next level, which was why he had pushed Mérante to leave Russia.

'Mérante, Mérante, Mérante,' she thought to herself. Was she imagining his intense gaze? She thought back to his face, his dark, expressive eyes, his sharp features, his dark, wavy hair framing his face. Odette had seen handsome men before but there was something else about Mérante. She found herself imagining his arms around her, his lips on hers, her hands tangled in his hair… She shook her head to rid herself of the image. Mérante was the new principal of the company, the heir apparent to the ballet master, and who was she? A mere servant, stuck paying off an insurmountable debt for the rest of her life. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep.

Odette felt that she had adapted well to her loss of fortune. She had come from nothing, and a part of her had always feared that she would return to nothing. She was no stranger to hard work; she had been the eldest of six when her mother had gotten pregnant again, and fallen to Odette to care for the children, clean and cook. The hardest thing for her was the pitying looks and whispers of the other members of the ballet school. Girls who had previously envied her success now reveled in her fall, but none was worse than Régine Le Haut. Régine had been in Odette's class since they were ten years old, but Régine had no talent, just a wealthy patron of a father. When Gustave chose to sponsor Odette, he had stopped paying for Régine's instruction.

Both Régine and her mother had resented Odette's relationship with Gustave, and made it known in the myriad ways they complicated things for her throughout the day. They would walk down a hall she'd only just finished cleaning, leaving footprints, move her cane when she wasn't looking, and a hundred other things to make more work for her. Today, Hélène had asked Odette to change the linens in the third-floor guest rooms. Changing linens was her least favorite chore as she couldn't carry the bulky linens up in all at once and had to make multiple trips up the infinite stairs. After her third trip, she paused to rest outside the door of the guest room, and heard familiar, intimate noises coming from the other side. Expecting one of the other maids, she opened the door, only to find Régine in flagrante delicto with a much older gentleman. Neither noticed her, and she held her breath as she backed away and silently closed the door.

A few weeks later, Odette came across Régine rushing to the bathroom. She didn't mean to overhear, but the distinct sounds coming through the door couldn't be mistaken. She hurried down the hall as silently as she could, but Régine saw her as she came out. "You'll need to clean up in there," she sneered, though Odette could hear a crack in her cruel veneer. "Something cook made is upsetting my stomach."

"How long has it been happening?" Regine smirked, shrugged and turned away. "You're pregnant."

"What do you know? Of course I'm not."

"I saw you."

A look of pure terror flashed across Régine's face before she put her features back together. "What do you want?"

Odette was surprised. She hadn't considered how valuable this piece of information was. She would never tell Hélène, who wouldn't believe her anyway, but Régine didn't know that. "I want to be moved out of the attic quarters." Régine simply nodded. For the briefest of moments, Odette felt sorry for Régine. "You're going to have to choose one of your suitors." She looked her up and down, stopping pointedly on her stomach. "And soon."